Harry, Wendy, and the Adventure of the Pink Tyrant
by officialhermitsunited
Summary: AU from the start, set in year/book 5, optional sequel to The Hogwarts Guidance Counselor. Harry and friends must face their worst year in Hogwarts yet with none other than Umbridge! Friendships will be tested, allegiances identified, and more than a few painful truths will come to light. Let the magic and adventure begin!


Chapter 1:

Harry Potter rubbed the sleep from his eyes and reached for his glasses. It was past nightfall, and an orange glow emanated from across the street though his window. He saw a hand silhouetted against the glow, pressed against the glass, a finger gently tapping on its surface.

He crawled forward and opened the window (slowly so he wouldn't wake his aunt, uncle, and cousin), allowing entrance to his late night visitor. It occurred to him the orange glow was much too bright and powerful to be coming from the street lamps from Privet Drive, and saw what was causing it as his friend hoisted herself into his room.

The house across the street, _her_ house to be exact, was on fire. It hadn't spread to the second floor yet, but it was engulfing it quickly, mounds of smoke coming out of the opened windows and chimney. The heat emanating off the smoking building didn't help the sticky hot night outside, so he shut the window back to keep from getting his room too hot to sleep comfortably in.

"I didn't think you were going to do it so soon," he whispered to his silent companion, the blaze reflecting in his glasses.

"I didn't either, but we had to rush after Mom got to stage her fight with her boss earlier than expected. As soon as the house is done burning, we'll be totally in the Wizarding World instead of one foot in one foot out like usual."

Wendy sat with h her knees tucked under her chin, her face illuminated. She had lived across the street from Harry for about eight years now, and they went to school together at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her hair was long, black, and wavy, and she had it in a pony tail.

A tear made its way down her face from her eyes where more welled up.

"It's weird, you know? That was home. All the other houses I've lived in I hardly stayed six month, maybe a year, but that one, I got to paint the walls and everything. Now I can't go back," she whispered, swiping at her face.

Harry didn't really know what to say, just awkwardly patted her on the shoulder.

She glanced at his face, and quietly laughed, swiping at more tears that had fallen. "I'll be fine; it'll take some getting used to. We're moving to the Order Safe House, it's Secret Kept, so I can't tell you where it is yet, but you'll know soon enough."

"Will I get to come this summer?" he asked earnestly.

"Yeah, I think they've set a date to transport you since you can't apparate yet. Mom and Dad have moved all our stuff to a warehouse and we've just got what we can carry shrunk in our pockets and backpacks at the moment. I hope they've got some sort of books or piano or something or I'll go mad until you get there," she continued conversationally in hushed tones. Her tears had subsided and she sniffled loudly.

They heard a grunting snore from Uncle Vernon down the hall, and jumped, but stayed still.

"I'll tell Sirius you said 'Hi', I'd better be off. Owl me, will you?" she opened the window and climbed out stealthily, thudding to the ground below. He leaned out, watching her dark form edge along the bushes and out of sight around the edge of the house. The window snapped closed and Harry ignored the second grunt from Uncle Vernon.

Wendy, her brother, and her parents were his only source of real communication during his summer. Ron and Hermione weren't being very forthcoming about the Order of the Phoenix in their letters, and he wasn't looking forward to his weeks of boredom, listening to the neighbors' television under their window for news (Uncle Vernon wouldn't let him watch the one downstairs) of Voldemorts whereabouts. He still had nightmares about Voldemort coming back to life from the cauldron in the graveyard just weeks ago, of the terrors of facing him alone with Wendy unconscious, and all his dreams ended differently. They both died in most of them.

He put his glasses on the bedside table and rolled over to attempt sleep before his cousin woke min up banging on his door, before his aunt made him do yard work, before she and his Uncle Vernon ignored his existence together until Uncle Vernon went to work for her to ignore him by herself. He closed his bright green eyes and dozed off, dreaming of Diagon Alley.

_The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix resides at Number 12 Grimauld Place_

"Look at it quickly and memorize it so I can burn it girl, I haven't got all day," Alastor 'Mad Eye' Moody grumbled impatiently at Wendy, before she passed the scrap of parchment to her younger brother, Benjamin. He politely handed it back to Mad Eye with a 'Thank you, sir', who promptly set it on fire with his wand.

"Now, neither of you are to go touching anything that isn't yours unless you've got express permission, and don't harass anybody inside, you hear?" he told them sternly.

"My children are far better behaved than you seem to assume, I assure you," Wendy's Dad told Mad Eye in his particularly ticked off tone.

"Yeah, Snape? We'll see about that."

Mad Eye opened the creaky front door to the old house, admitting the four new residents.

Molly Weasley, mother to Wendy's friend Ron Weasley, met them to show them to their rooms. Wendy and Benjamin got smallish separate rooms on the third floor across the hall from their parent's slightly larger room. The third floor wasn't occupied by anyone else, Mrs. Weasley assured them, so there'd be no one stomping through in the morning to use the bathroom just two doors down. She did warn Wendy and Benjamin about the portrait of Mrs. Black, Sirius Blacks mother, who screeched bad things if you woke her up.

Wendy's own mother smiled warmly at Molly and bade her goodnight as she walked down the stairs.

They all got to work, divvying up their belongings, Dad going into Benjamin's room to tidy up and help him put his things away, Wendy's Mom doing the same for her.

Juniper (Joon) Gray Snape was the Guidance Counselor at Hogwarts and taught Ministry mandated classes on success in school and in adult life. She was a tall lean woman, with a deceitfully young face and generally kind disposition. She had long brown hair, which was where Wendy got her type, and had lighter versions of Wendy's odd purple eyes, which were a genetic/magic condition from Joons parentage. She also used wandless magic, a gift she'd passed on to Wendy, and was able to do all sorts of things to help out the room.

The gas wall sconces came to life to reveal peeling wall paint and a short broken dresser/mirror combination. The bed wasn't in the best condition, and the frame looked to be falling to pieces; the bookshelf was empty and worn, and the window was dirty.

Mom did it justice, somehow stripping the wall of its old green paint to reveal its original navy blue, and fixed the furnishings to make it more habitable. Wendy opened her pockets and laid out the clothing items she had chosen to bring with her on the bed and her mother spelled them larger and into the now repaired and almost new looking dresser drawers. Then came the few extra things she'd brought, like her tapes and tape player/radio (headphones included), shoes (mostly boots), and a few other odds and ends including her never touched wand and toiletries.

"I've done all I can for that bed, it won't creak or break on you, but that mattress is beyond help," Mom told her quietly, obviously not wanting to wake the other people in the house. She pulled her daughter into a hug, hardly an inch taller. "We might be able to switch out one from the other rooms tomorrow if it's too bad, but I think you'll be okay for tonight. I love you."

"I love you too, Mama. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Dad came in next with a blanket, sheets, and a cased pillow for the bed, admiring the improvements made to the room.

Severus Snape was the Potions Master at Hogwarts, Spy for the Order of the Phoenix on Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and freelance Potioneer/Dark Arts Expert. Slightly taller than her Mom (although not by much), he was also leaner, with black hair and eyes (definitely not the beady sort), long legs, arms, and fingers, which was where Wendy got most of her lankiness from. He usually wore heavy black teaching robes (very billowy), but the unusually hot summer combined with a need to blend in with the Muggles drove him to long sleeved white button up shirts and black trousers instead.

"Your mum did well," he commented idly. Wendy loved his voice ever since the first time she met him; it was the best for stories.

She nearly tackled him in a hug, grinning up at him with sparkly eyes.

"I love you Daddy," she whispered.

"I love you too, Wendy," he told her back, half smiling, and kissed her on the forehead.

"Try to sleep. You've got second shift this morning for Bathroom Duty around seven; I'll check it out and test the setup for any quirks. There's a nasty house elf named Kreacher running around here, so if any of your things are missing and Benjamin hasn't squirreled them away, he should be questioned. Breakfast is in the kitchen downstairs all morning. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Tiptoeing down the hall after her parents went to heir room, she scratched on Benjamin's door in the pattern they'd agreed on, and he opened up for her.

His room was looking quite nice, perfect for his style of doing. He was only six, and not very tall, just like Wendy had been at that age, so his furniture had been cut down to size for his stature. His mattress and box springs were on the floor, and she suspected Dad had done it that way to keep Benjamin's nightmares from surfacing about the time a _real_ monster (a Living Shroud no less) had gotten under his bed at the house they lived in on Privet Drive, and because Lethifolds are normally found in the tropics, Mom and Dad believed someone had found where Dad lived and intended to kill him, so the whole house was warded so harshly a mouse couldn't squeak without either Mom or dad knowing about it.

She grinned at Benjamin who grinned back.

Benjamin Alexander Snape (Benji for short) had their Dads black eyes, and strait black hair, which was cut in a choppy fashion near his head so it would be easy to brush. He wasn't very tall for a six year old, but he made it up in brains and attitude. He was cunning, smart, and refused to be anything less than well dressed unless he was painting or playing in the mud ("Why get my nice pants all dirty?"), a stereotypical Slytherin through and through.

He rushed up to her grinning, and held up his arms, which was Wendy's queue to pick him up. He hugged her close, and she reciprocated. He kissed her on the cheek. "I love you Wendy."

"I love you too Benji."

Wendy went back to her own room, got ready for bed, brushed her hair out in the mirror before she extinguished the light, and crawled into the passable bed before she drifted off.

Wendy sat at the dining room table that morning dressed, brushed, and well awake with her Mom, her Dad, Mr. Weasley, Sirius, Benjamin, Ron, Hermione, and a new face, Nymphadora Tonks.

Tonks was a metamorphagus, or a shape shifter, and could make her body look like anybody at any time; she had a normal form, but preferred her hair bubblegum pink. She was an Auror, sided with the Order, and had good expertise on fighting the Dark Arts.

Breakfast was great; sausages, eggs, bacon, bread, fruits, and fried potatoes. Sirius was surprised to find Wendy rivaling Ron in his eating habits, completing almost as many helpings as he had, although her diet was more fruit filled than his.

"Of course I do. He's a bottomless pit and growing like a weed, always has been, but I have to eat that much to keep up with training, 3000 calories a day at minimum," she told him plainly, grinning over at Ron who swallowed his mouthful and grinned back.

Dad scowled behind his coffee.

"What are you training for?" Tonks inquired.

"Magic, of course! I do wandless magic, like Mom, and it takes a lot of physical energy to do advanced stuff. Like, say, using elements for starters. If we're outside, I can use the dirt and water for defense like a shield, or offense like ice spears, and rock tombs. Things like that take a lot more concentration and exertion than cutting Benji's sausages."

Sure enough Mom was doing so at that moment, still reading the paper and sipping coffee.

"Does take concentration not to cut through the plates, though," she mumbled, allowing the utensils to be taken by Benji so he could eat.

"That's pretty cool. Does the Ministry let you use magic outside of school?"

"Well, the way the law is worded," her dad began, "One _could_ allow ones children to use magic outside of school at ones well warded residence, given of course said children are monitored and regulated closely. Can't have the neighbor's cat flying around the chimney again, can we?" he asked pointedly, making Wendy's face turn pink and a grin split mischievously.

"In my defense, that was the meanest cat I ever laid eyes on, and it kept getting into the garbage! I was only doing my duty."

"Oh I'm not complaining in the slightest, you two could have set the yowling beast on fire as long as it was in the back yard, but you can't do it out in the open like that," he replied, sipping his coffee again.

"Aw, why didn't we think of that, Wendy?" Benjamin piped in after his plate was finished. "It always ate my toys when I took them outside. Would have done the neighborhood some good," he grinned, and gulped down the last of his Pumpkin Juice.

Hermione was engrossed in a book, and hadn't said a word all morning, hardly picking at her food. She gasped in horror, before picking up the book and bringing it closer to her face. The title came into view. It was one she had borrowed from Wendy not long ago; _Wuthering Heights_.

Wendy's Mom had looked over to see what it was, and grimaced at the title.

"Oh God, not that one," she muttered.

"What about it? Isn't it supposed to be a classic or something?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, it's a classic alright. Worst narration I've ever read in my life. Of course, Bronte does it perfectly, it's just that awful house maid whose doing most of the narration is this mattering old woman who just goes on and on for days with- what was it you called it, Severus?"

"Ceaseless prattling tripe."

"Yeah, that. Eventually even the other narrator gives up on her and goes on to try and abridge what the maid is saying. Thank goodness too, or the book would have turned out to be thicker than a manual for a commercial airliner."

"A what?" Ron asked.

"It's a kind of flying plane that people travel all over in. You can fly from Atlanta to London in a few hours in one, and there are all sorts of complicated parts and buttons to fool with so one will fly," she explained patiently.

Benjamin was now washing the dishes. Wendy hadn't even noticed him move, and was surprised, but saw his scheme as soon as he spoke.

"Benjamin! You don't have to do those, I've got it all under control," Mrs. Weasley told him good naturedly.

"Oh no, Mrs. Weasley, you've been so nice to make me breakfast, it's only right I do my own dishes," he told her, vigorously cleaning his cup, plate, and silverware until it shone.

All three Snape's at the table looked at him, with either an eyebrow raised in suspicious disbelief or amusement.

"Thank you, sweet boy! I might just pick you up some sweets on the next grocery run."

"Oh you don't have to, Ma'am, anything for you."

"Going straight into Slytherin, that one is, unlike some people," Dad said as Mom handed him the paper she'd finished.

"Well, can you honestly blame me?" Wendy grinned.

"No, I can't, you're with your friends, but it was a serious shock I may never get over."

"What was?" Sirius asked, obviously intrigued to know what could shock the Potions Master.

"I requested the Sorting Hat put me in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin. Using Slytherin tactics, I might add," Wendy replied with a hint of smugness, but it was mostly amusement at her Dads general reaction and attitude.

"What house did you get sorted into, Joon?" Sirius asked, suddenly intrigued.

"Slytherin."

"Daddy, what's the name of that pretty chicken?"

Dad just sort of looked at Benjamin blankly for a moment.

"The pretty…. Chicken." His eyes were narrowed as he looked at Benjamin confusedly.

"Yeah. What's its name?"

"I may need a bit more to go off of than that."

"Ooooh you know what I'm talking about, Daddy, the one Poppy has that flies and sings."

Dad was still at a loss. "I do not believe I've ever met anybody by the name of Poppy except the school matron, and I'm quite sure she doesn't have any pets."

"Poppy's your boss."

He paused. "Can you be more specific?"

"Oh, quit being difficult," Benjamin admonished Wendy's Dad with a grin. "Professor Bumblebee."

"Dumbledore? Professor Dumbledore?"

"Yeah, Poppy."

"That'd be a Phoenix, which I guess is basically just a flying singing chicken, but you must give things their proper names or I'll never guess what you're talking about. Professor Dumbledore's Phoenix is named Fawkes."

"Doesn't Fawkes live forever?"

"As far as anybody knows, yes."

"And Poppy? Will he live forever?"

"That's debatable, knowing him," he grumbled, "No, I wouldn't think so. The Headmaster is mortal like the rest of us."

"Then won't Fawkes out live Poppy?"

"Yes, by logic, he ought to."

There was silence.

"Well, that's awfully sad, outliving a friend, isn't it? If Fawkes lived forever before now, I bet he's outlived a lot of friends, huh?"

"I… should think so."

"Hm," was Benjamin's only reply before Benji excused himself.

"Never a breakfast I've been to with him that doesn't get some level of deep," Mom commented idly.

Dad's eyebrows were still quite high. "I wonder where he gets it from," he drawled.

"That's your doing, not mine," Mom countered, standing to wash and put her dishes away.

Ron and Hermione were finished, as was Wendy and Dad and Sirius, so all of them ended up leaving the kitchen at once; Wendy Ron and Hermione went to the second floor to Hermione's room to talk, Sirius retreated to his rooms and Mom and Dad went off to the Library to look around.

Wendy couldn't wait for Harry to get there.


End file.
